Rebels in Syria behead Shi'ite fighter

Rebels in Syria with ties to al-Qaeda have decapitated a man believed to have been a pro-government Shi'ite fighter, an amateur video of the public beheading posted to the Internet on Saturday showed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group which posted the video, said the beheading was conducted by the Islamic State

in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a foreign-led group fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad and establish an Islamic emirate in Syria.

The footage shows armed men in black standing outdoors in a circle around a man who is lying on the grass. One of the militants leans over the victim and appears to cut off his head with a small knife, cheered on by the others.

Once the head is detached, the militant holds it up and places it on the man's back before it rolls off and settles on the ground about a meter away from his body.

The remainder of the three-minute video shows the crowd, which includes several children, talking, laughing and taking photographs of the scene. (Reuters)